A/HRC/45/36 49. On 2 September 2019, special procedure mandate holders raised concern about the alleged harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders Ms. Salma Ashraf Abdel Halim Abdelghaffar, of Human Rights Monitor, and Mr. Mohamed Zarea, of Arab Penal Reform Organization, following their engagement with the Human Rights Council in March 2019 (EGY 8/2019; A/HRC/42/30, Annex I, para. 38). On 1 March 2019, Ms. Ashraf spoke as a panellist on women’s rights in Egypt during an NGO side event on the margins of the Human Rights Council. During the event, representatives from an NGO photographed and filmed Ms. Ashraf and other panellists without their permission. At the closing of the event, a representative of the same NGO took the floor and made disparaging remarks attempting to discredit Ms. Ashraf’s work. That evening, and on the following day, multiple Egyptian newspaper articles and television segments covered the NGO side event, including Ms. Ashraf’s and Mr. Zarea’s participation, accusing them of being “terrorists” and of organizing a side event to defame Egypt’s human rights record (EGY 8/2019). 50. In the same September 2019 communication, mandate holders also addressed the situation of Mr. Amr Magdi, of Human Rights Watch. He was allegedly subject to a smear campaign by Egyptian pro-Government media that accused him of affiliation with terrorist organizations. One prominent television presenter called for his execution following the release of a May 2019 report on alleged human rights violations committed by Egyptian Security Forces and ISIS-affiliates in North Sinai (EGY 8/2019). According to information submitted to OHCHR, Mr. Magdi regularly engages with and reports to UN human rights mechanisms and took part in an NGO side event on the margins of the Human Rights Council in March 2019; activities which have reportedly contributed to the scope and intensity of the campaign and threats against him. 51. In its July 2019 report, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances noted that it remained deeply concerned about alarming reports of reprisals against relatives of the disappeared and civil society organizations working on their behalf (A/HRC/42/40, para. 72). The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in an August 2019 opinion in which it considered the case of a victim of reprisals, and found his detention arbitrary (see Annex II), noted that “the present opinion is only one of many other opinions issued in the past five years in which the Working Group has found the Government to be in violation of its international human rights obligations,” and “that this indicates a systemic problem with arbitrary detention in Egypt” (A/HRC/WGAD/HRC/2019/41, para. 53). 14. Equatorial Guinea 52. On 3 September 2019, special procedures mandate holders expressed concern about alleged acts of reprisals against Mr. Alfredo Okenve, of the NGO Centro de Estudios e Iniciativas para el Desarrollo de Guinea Ecuatorial (CEID, also CEIDGE), following his engagement with the UPR of Equatorial Guinea in May 2019 and the Human Rights Committee’s review of the State party’s report in July 2019 (GNQ 2/2019). On 3 April 2019, Mr. Okenve made a statement at the UPR pre-session in Geneva and submitted a joint written report, available online.34 CEID also presented a written report for the 126th session of the Human Rights Committee in July 2019, available online. 35 On 3 July 2019, CEID received a decision from the Minister of the Interior, dated 11 April 2019, ordering the dissolution of the association due to non-compliance with its statutes for carrying out political-partisan activities. 53. In its August 2019 concluding observations, the Human Rights Committee expressed concern about reports that human rights defenders are harassed and frequently arrested, and mentioned a past incident involving Mr. Okenve (CCPR/C/GNQ/CO/1, para. 56). On 14 August 2019, the Human Rights Committee sent a confidential letter to the Government, expressing concern at allegations of the broadcast of unauthorized footage and stigmatization by a State television channel of several civil society representatives, who were present in Geneva during the review of the country at its 126th session. 34 35 https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?filename=6537&file=EnglishTranslation. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/ccpr/Shared%20Documents/gnq/int_ccpr_css_gnq_35118_E.pdf. 29